This is just a really quick post to tell you about the lovely breakfast my Husband and I had at The Fields Beneath in Kentish Town yesterday.

I have been following the cafe on social media for over a year now and were really interested in their story.

The cafe had been running since 2012 before one of the owners became vegan. Gradually they started reducing the animal products available in the cafe and finally eliminated dairy milk on Mother’s Day 2017.

As we were staying in Camden on Sunday night it was a great opportunity to get down to the cafe for breakfast the next morning.

We were planning on heading to Camden market for lunch so I didn’t want anything huge for breakfast. I had also seen multiple photos of their croissants on their Intagram feed and was really intrigued to try them.

We had a croissant each and OH MY WORD! These are definitely the best vegan croissants I have every tasted and definitely up there with any non-vegan offering. (I don’t think you’d even be able to tell). Just look at that texture!

I had a gorgeous chai latte to accompany my croissant. The Fields Beneath use Oatly oat milk as their default milk but they also have a variety of other options available on request.

My Husband, who doesn’t drink hot drinks went for a sparkling citrus, cold brew coffee. This had an interesting flavour that was very unusual but not unpleasant. I’d definitely try it again.

The Fields Beneath is located under the arches at Kentish Town West station and I am very jealous of the people who can go in everyday on their commute!

Have you been to The Fields Beneath? What did you think? Let me know in the comments below.

I haven’t done one of these posts in a while so I thought why not do one now.

Breakfast for me is generally overnight oats, if it’s a cold morning I will pop it in the microwave for a couple of minutes but generally I just have it cold.

I find overnight oats are a great way to start your day off right. I add milled flax seed, cacao nibs, frozen berries and hemp milk.

My colleague had been to Germany at the weekend and brought back some treats to share. Luckily some the chocolate bars were accidentally vegan so I nabbed a square as often the office treats aren’t vegan.

Mid morning snack is always an apple (if I remember to buy a bag on the Monday!)

I usually buy my lunch out. In recent times vegan options have got better and better so I’m spoilt for choice. I went for a mixed mushroom bibimbap from Bibimbap to go. Bibimbap is a Korean rice dish with lots of different vegetables that you mix in. Traditionally it comes with an egg on top but fortunately they don’t do that at this shop. I usually go for the tofu one but I’m glad I tried the mushroom one this time and I’ll definitely have it again.

I met my friend for dinner. She fancied Chinese so we went to my local which has great vegan options but they were shut as they had been open for the bank holiday so we tried out another one she knew of that had some options.

For starters we shared spring rolls and vegetarian crispy duck which was made out of tofu. I love hoisin sauce and the whole pancake thing with crispy duck so my eyes light up when I see a vegan version on the menu.

For mains I had seaspice aubergine with rice noodles but I somehow managed to forget to take a photo! I love seaspice sauce and the aubergine was soft and delicious.

The staff were so nice and attentive, topping up our water, asking if we were warm enough with the door open and letting us take things at our own pace. It was such a nice evening catching up with my friend.

I hope you enjoyed reading this post and thank you for visiting the blog.

Well it’s been over a month since I last posted. It sometimes seems like I have loads of events all at once and then none for a little while and I don’t like to post just for the sake of it!

When I was out with my friend Maxine a couple of weeks ago she mentioned she was heading to this month’s Vegan Nights and as I free and hadn’t been in a few months I decided to tag along.

The event takes place in 93 Feet East and The Boilerhouse in Brick Lane and takes up a much larger space than the last time I visited. This was great as it meant stalls weren’t cramped together and there was a lot more space for seating.

We decided to go early, which was great to beat the queues and meant I wasn’t out too late! (I do love to be in bed by 10!)

I decided to go have tofish and chips with mushy peas from Shakey Shakey Fish Bar. I’d heard of these guys but never been to an event they were at so wanted to try them out. The tofish was great, the batter was crisp and there was more seaweed than I’ve had in other tofish dishes, which gave it that fishy taste. I also really enjoyed dipping my chips in the tartare sauce.

They also had deep fried Oreos which I was really tempted by, but they’ll have to wait for next time!

Maxine went for a wrap from What the Pitta, I have tried these multiple times and they are always amazing!

For dessert I couldn’t resist this mint chocolate ice cream from Hell Yum. Mint choc chip was always my favourite ice cream flavour pre-vegan and it’s one you rarely see vegan versions of. We also tried some samples of Hell Yum’s cookies which were delicious. They also do ice cream cookie sandwiches but I was far too full for that!

There’s always two cake stalls I have to purchase something from. I picked up a Viennese Whirl from Vegan Delice and a rainbow cake along with a couple of brownies (peanut and caramel) for my Husband from Vida Bakery. These went down a right treat!

I managed to make one none food purchase as well. This gorgeous T-shirt from BCLVA (I couldn’t find a link for them, sorry!) for only a fiver! Maxine picked up a couple of different designs too. I think it’s gonna look great at activism events!

We also had a little boogie to DJ Deccy Jarrett in the bar area before I decided to head home.

There were so many other places to try out, I think I’ll definitely have to back next month!

I’ll finish with this photo of Maxine and I showing off our vegan ink!

Did you visit Vegan Nights this month? What did you think? What did you eat?

Thought I’d just do a short post to share some photos from the potluck I attended last night.

My friend Maxine hosted the event at her house to celebrate the first anniversary of our local activism group Havering Vegan Action.

It was so nice to go to an event where I could eat absolutely everything knowing no animals had been hurt in the process.

The food was so good, I need to get the recipes from everyone! We had a good mix of savoury and sweet and no two people brought the same dish.

On this plate we have a savoury quinoa dish, a creamy mushroom pasta, nut roast, lasagna and a chickpea and tofu salad. Not pictured is the sausage rolls I made as I was more excited about trying everybody else’s dishes.

Firstly for dessert we had this gorgeous raw “cheesecake” made with cashews, pineapple and tumeric.

Next up we have these nutty vegan brownies topped with raspberries.

And lastly these peanutty flapjacky protein bars.

Of course I had to try all three accompanied by some vegan ice cream!

If you’re lucky enough to know a gang of vegans in real life a potluck is a great way of learning new dishes to make. And getting involved in local activism is a great way of meeting those fellow vegans!

Some of you may know I’m an analyst at work and love a bit of number crunching so I always look forward to seeing the stats come out after Veganuary and this year is no different, so let’s take a look!

Its great to see the overall participation increase year on year and a massive 183% increase on 2017! This only accounts for the people who sign up on https://veganuary.com so I am sure there are many others who take part every year without signing up.

It’s also nice to see people’s motivation for trying Veganuary, but whatever the reason the animals and the planet benefit from it! 79,000 were omnivores so that’s a huge number going cold tofurkey for the month!

Younger people lead the way as expected, but my age range of 25 – 34 are slightly leading the pack ahead of the 18 – 24 whippersnappers and the 35 – 44 crew don’t seem far behind them.

Women seem to be leading the way again with 84% of participants but men have increased to 14% from 10% in 2017. I think this is in part due to women more likely to sign up to the website so there may be quite a few more men taking part, they just aren’t in the official figure.

The dairy industry tried to hit back with their #februdairy campaign but as these search stats (courtesy of @vegandon on Twitter) show it paled in comparison.

So there you have it. I’m looking forward to seeing the six month results and how many people decided to stick with it. With all the options now available it just gets easier and easier to transition to veganism.

Did you take part in Veganuary this year? How did it go? Or are you a veteran of Veganuary and still going strong? Let me know in the comments below.

As I was visiting my friend in Bournemouth this weekend and we were planning a shopping trip to Southampton I asked my Twitter friend Becky, who lives there, if she fancied meeting up for a coffee. She is a long term vegetarian so suggested we had lunch at Café Thrive where she regularly hangs out when doing her free lance work.

When I arrived it was quite busy and there were only spaces along on the window, but I quickly saw there was also an upstairs seating area so I nabbed a table and ordered an almond matcha latte while I waited for Becky to arrive.

The matcha latte was really creamy and I almost thought they had put dairy milk in it, but Becky reassured me the café was 100% vegan.

I had a look through the extensive menu (which Becky is slowly working her way through on a weekly basis!) I decided the wholefood burger with chips was in order and Becky went for the meaty burger.

We both chose chips and I grabbed some barbecue sauce from the condiments trolley. The burger was really tasty and felt like a proper burger rather than a healthy version of a burger the name eluded to. The salad it came with was really nice too and had pumpkin seeds and garlic oil (which I tend to pour over everything!)

Photo credit – Becky John

After the food we still had lots of chatting to do so I ordered a Kyoto cherry blossom green and Becky had a coffee and a vanilla slice. The tea was gorgeous and really reminded me of all the “sakura” flavoured things my Husband and I had when we were on our honeymoon in Japan. Becky really enjoyed her cake and also recommended the peanut blondies.

I was too stuffed for cake straight away but I picked up a split cream doughnut to enjoy later back at my friend’s house. These were always my favourite in my pre-vegan days and it’s not too often you see vegan versions so I always pick one up when I do. I was impressed at how well it travelled in my handbag and didn’t look too squashed when I retrieved it later. The cream was thick, the jam sweet and the doughnut lovely and soft. Heaven!

I also picked up a bar of Solkiki chocolate. I previously reviewed and interviewed their owner Bob here. So I will look forward to eating this is the coming days.

A few doors down from Thrive there is Rice Wholefoods which has a wide variety of products including bulk bins, chilled and frozen items, beauty, hot food and cakes. It’s definitely worth a visit if your passing by. As I was carrying a backpack back up to London I couldn’t take full advantage of everything on sale but I’ll definitely be back.

Have you been to Cafe Thrive? What did you think? What would you recommend? Let me know in the comments below.